How to move your WordPress website

In this post I will show you several ways of moving your WordPress website to another hosting and/or domain.

Let’s begin with the manual way of doing this.

For this to happen you will need the following set of tools:

Text editor like Notepad++ or similar;

FTP software like FileZilla (a browser FTP plugin is also suitable, for example FireFTP for Firefox);

Access to your hosting administration panel – phpMyAdmin or similar;

Optional – compressing software supporting the tar.gz format;

OK – now let’s view the three possible options:

Option 1 – Your domain name, URL’s and database user will be the same. Only the hosting will be different.

In this case you need to open phpMyAdmin and export your database file. The procedure is extremely simple and can be done even by beginners. Here is a tutorial on this on the official WordPress codex website. On this link you will find out how to export your database if you are using another tool as well.

Then you need to download your website’s WordPress files and folders using the FTP software of your choice. Once you are done you can upload them on the root folder of the new hosting. Then using phpMyAdmin or a similar tool that you have to upload your database and you are done.

Option 2 – The domain name and the URL’s will be the same. The hosting and the database user will be different.

In this case you have to edit the downloaded wp-config file using the desired text editor. Change the username of the database user according to the settings of the new hosting. Then upload the database and WordPress files and folders.

Option 3 – The domain name, URL’s and the hosting will be different. The database user will remain the same.

In this case you have to make a complete backup of the database and the website’s files and folders. Keep them somewhere safe in case things go wrong. You can also compress the files and folders using the tar.gz compression. Then on the old hosting (and/or domain) you have to log in and change the website URL’s from Settings – General. When you save these changes you should expect a 404 error page. Then make a new export of the database, download all files and folders once again and this time upload all of them to the new hosting. Enter the new domain name and everything should be correct. At least you should have access to the admin panel. If some of the URL’s are not working correctly you need to further change and replace the domain name by using the methods provided here.

Follow the instructions in Step 3. Change the database user as described in Step 2. You are done.

This is the proper way of moving WordPress manually. Now let’s see the possible plugins that can make things easier for your:

All-in-One-WP Migration – this is a wonderful plugin that is perfect for beginners. All you need to do is install it and make a copy of your website. This copy contains the files, folders and the database and can be downloaded to your hard drive or can be stored on a service like Dropbox or Google Drive. Then make a fresh WordPress install on the new hosting with no configurations rather than the default ones. Install the plugin on this new installation and import the copy. After a couple of minutes it will be transformed into your old website. All-in-One-WP Migration will take care for any URL or database user changes for you. Simple as that! Read our detailed review for this plugin for more information.

Duplicator – this plugin works in a similar way as All-in-One WP Migration. It will create a full copy of your database and files. Then you can upload them on the new hosting (and/or domain) and you have to access the installer.php file that Duplicator has created for you. Follow the steps and your website will be migrated in no time without additional effort. We have reviewed this wonderful plugin here and you can read this post for more information on its usage.

UpdraftPlus – this is a supreme backup plugin. However it can be used as a cloning/moving tool as well. Make sure that you read our review on its usage from here.

This concludes the topic on how to move your WordPress website. We are open for any feedback – questions, opinions, suggestions, etc. You are welcome to use the comment section for this purpose. If you want to help others find out how to move their WordPress websites, you can share this post on social media as well.

About The Author

Hi! My name is Daniel Angelov and I am a certified SEO and Digital Marketing Specialist. My passion is WordPress, Social Media, Project Management, Open Source Software, Marketing, SEO and Copywriting. In my free time I like reading and fishing. My personal blog is "Optibg.com"